bee colony

...virtually as a single organism. It usually consists of the queen bee, a fertilized female capable of laying a thousand or more eggs per day; from a few to 60,000 sexually undeveloped females, the
worker bees; and from none to 1,000 male bees, or drones. The female of most species of bees is equipped with a venomous sting.

eusocial species

...aid relatively few (or even a single) reproductive group members. Eusocial species often exhibit extreme task specialization, which makes colonies potentially very efficient in gathering resources. Workers in eusocial colonies are thought to forgo reproduction due to constraints on independent breeding. Such constraints include shortages of food, territories, protection, skill, nest sites,...

honeybee mating behaviour

...the individuals produced are diploid, but, unlike the queen, they are sterile. This sterility results indirectly from a chemical secreted by the queen, called the queen substance. It inhibits the
workers from building special brood cells that give rise to sexually developed individuals. If the queen fails to secrete this substance because of age or death, the
workers immediately construct...

honeybee social structure

There are two honeybee sexes, male and female, and two female castes. The two female castes are known as
workers, which are females that do not attain sexual maturity, and queens, females that are larger than the
workers. The males, or drones, are larger than the
workers and are present only in early summer. The
workers and queens have stingers, whereas the drones are stingless.

termite castes

The sterile castes are the
workers and soldiers. Both are wingless and usually lack eyes. Although these can be either male or female, they lack fully developed reproductive organs. In some species the
workers and soldiers are dimorphic (of two sizes), with the larger individuals called major soldiers or
workers and the smaller ones called minor soldiers or
workers. A few species contain...